Darkened Return: Shadow of the Robotnik
by BlackTyrantValvatorez
Summary: (Like in Blackened Revival, Lucian Katubor and Chocolate the Rabbit belong to nerokin4. Corbenik the Echidna is an original character.) One week after the firefight that ended Blackened Revival, Neoshadow finds himself working with G.U.N. in what is just a short part of his story. And nothing that the inhabitants of Mobius can do is capable of stopping Black Hope's covert actions.


**Darkened Return: Shadow of the Robotnik**

E-123 Omega

Northlands, Central City, 3645/08/05, Local time is 03:35, near an inactive "City Annihilator Bomb."

Neoshadow was pursuing a red robot that had stolen the Red Chaos Emerald from the Kaito ruins on North Island. The pursuit had taken Neoshadow to Central City and the Mystic Ruins even though the robot looked like it could not cross half of the Northlands without losing all of its power. The robot was now standing next to a recently placed "City Annihilator Bomb" that had been placed by another R-robot. After the initial skirmish with the Black Arms, Dr. Robotnik had managed to reverse-engineer some of their technology, mostly explosives, small arms and the Black Cannon. The bomb technology was dangerous as the City Annihilator explosives could destroy an entire city if they were placed strategically and then detonated. The Original Shadow the Hedgehog had defused some of these after being admitted into G.U.N. as part of a training mission. The red robot tried to activate the bomb, but Neoshadow attacked it and prevented it from detonating by neutralizing an R-robot that had come to arm it in case the red one failed.

The red machine got up and said to Neoshadow, "Who are you and why do you oppose the rule of Robotnik?! I am E-123 Omega, the last of the recently- reformed E-100 series."

"I am Neoshadow the Hedgehog, embodiment of the Black Arms, Omega. You have been blindly following orders if you are being powered by an animal." Neoshadow said to the machine of red coloration.

"I have no organic battery, Neoshadow. I have a single EGG-4003 Hydraulic Nuclear Fusion Power Core energizing my systems."

Neoshadow fired a green-colored chaos spear at Omega and it hit him, rewriting his Artificial Intelligence from scratch to oppose Robotnik and help G.U.N., the South Islanders, and all other sentient life on Mobius. E-123 then called an Explosive Ordinance Disposal squad to his current location and they defused the City Annihilator Bomb. Heading out to Headquarters for a debriefing, Neoshadow reported that the mission was a success and that the red machine is now opposing Robotnik due to having its Artificial Intelligence rewritten. Headquarters hears this and issues another mission to Neoshadow, this one being a base infiltration. The mission is simple: G.U.N. is preparing to attack a large Robotnik base found on the continent of Zalvonia in the Southern Hemisphere of Mobius. This base is rather large, can be entered from multiple methods and is known as Geltina Base. Neoshadow is to enter the base through the underground caves and destroy the installation's radar systems before the attack actually begins. By disabling the radar, the G.U.N. forces will be able to surprise the R-robot defenders and take the base without suffering very many casualties. As Neoshadow heads out for Geltina Base, he finds out that Zalvonia is one of three continents in Mobius's Southern Hemisphere. The other two continents are known as Noxtralia and the Southlands respectively.

Meanwhile on the Space Colony ARK, Black Hope, disguising himself as the deceased Miles 'Tails' Prower Sr., is trying to hack into Gerald Robotnik's research data hidden inside a secret laboratory that had not been used in over 1050 years. So far he has not been successful in breaking in but he isn't daunted as he knows that it is all classified data that has been forgotten. What is surprising is that G.U.N. still didn't find all of the research labs and some of the creatures are not only alive, but have reproduced and populated the entire colony.

Flashback of White Hope's Ascension to Ruler

Chaoxius, 3645/03/26, Inside of a room at the top of the Ruler's Palace, 04:15 local time.

White Hope was sitting in an elegant Gold-painted chair when he awoke, holding a Light Shot in his left hand and a Black Sword in his right hand. He stood up, aware that someone might be coming. As if on cue, two Black Warriors dressed in camouflage broke in through a large window ten feet in front of White Hope's chair while a third one wearing a trench coat crashed in from a doorway to the left of the chair that had been unlocked, all three armed with Heavy Shots and Black Swords. White Hope aimed and shot one of the would-be-assassins in the head, killing him and moving quickly to stab the other, who is impaled on the blade and dies. The third assassin dashes off and tries to fire, but White Hope shoots his Heavy Shot, destroying the weapon and injuring his arm. White Hope then heads down to the Elder's Council Chamber and he sees that all of them are already inside waiting for him.

"Elders of Chaoxius, you voted me for ruler yet one of you had second thoughts, for three assassins broke into the Ruler's Chambers a few minutes ago. As you might suspect, none of them even managed to scratch me. I killed two of them and left the last one alive so that we can discuss who sent him and his dead accomplices."

Suddenly the assassin from before, the assassin who fled, limped into the hall clutching his injured arm. "White Hope, it was me who personally tried to take you down with two others. I did have second thoughts about you as our ruler. I am known as Ashen Phantom and since you have demonstrated your power, your word is law."

Ashen Phantom leapt in front of White Hope while he pulled out his black sword and swung the blade through the elder's neck, decapitating and killing him. The ruler of Chaoxius then sheathed his weapon and told the elite soldiers next to him, "The Phantom line will leave this palace. They are no longer welcome inside. They have until 07:15 to do so. If any stall for longer, they shall suffer the same fate as this warrior. He had found his honor before he died. If he had got on his knees and begged, all of his relatives would have been exterminated."

"Understood. Your order will be issued without delay." One of the elite soldiers said to White Hope.

White Hope then turned toward the other elders. "In order to combat the threat of the human known as Lucian Katubor a.k.a. Robotnik, Neoshadow the Hedgehog along with Elite Soldiers Johnson and Andrew and the recently-revived Original Shadow the Hedgehog will be deployed to Mobius. They will receive two months of standard Black Arms military training prior to deployment. This is my first Absolute Order as Ruler of Chaoxius. Do any of the Elders have a reason to object?" He said to them.

A small frail-looking elder stood up and said, "My name is Spiritual Destiny. I believe that this order is going to weaken our defenses against our enemies."

"Does anyone else oppose this order?"

The rest of the elders muttered amongst themselves before a warrior comes up and says, "My Lord, no one else objects to your infinite wisdom."

"Understood, Soldier. You are dismissed back to your station."

White Hope thought to himself, "This is going to be a very busy reign for me. Neoshadow and Shadow will need their powers at the ready constantly, and I am sure that Black Hope, that schemer from Heaven's Icicle Prison, will try to complicate things."

Corbenik the Echidna

Northlands, Glyphic Canyon, 3645/08/07, local time is 07:24.

Corbenik the Echidna was keeping an eye on several of the red-dressed humans that were investigating the old ruins that Black Doom had left behind when he visited Mobius over 3000 years ago. The purple creature had orange Mobicite Crystals growing in his back since he needed the crystal's unique properties to control the extraordinary powers that he had when he was born. Corbenik knew that if he couldn't control his powers, he would leave a trail of destruction where he went, yet the Mobicite Crystals were shortening his lifespan. The humans that the Echidna was monitoring were insurrectionists from Eastside Island who were looking in the ruins for anything that could help them in their goal to destroy the island's intelligent animal life. So far they have not found anything, but Corbenik wasn't taking any chances with the humans. He started killing them as soon as some R-robots arrived to assist them, but eventually they realized what was going on and fled, leaving the R-robots to handle the situation. Less than five minutes later, Corbenik is standing in front of several destroyed R-robots, the machines twisted and charred as electrical sparks light up from some of them.

Meanwhile on the Space Colony ARK, Black Hope has now successfully hacked into Professor Gerald Robotnik's research data and is downloading it into a flash drive that the former Vice-Warden of Heaven's Icicle Prison had kept on his person. While he is downloading the research data, he finds something classified and locked with a powerful program built by the Eggman Empire. Cracking the program with an info-stealer virus, Black Hope finds out that the Original Shadow the Hedgehog, despite all odds, survived atmospheric reentry and was actually saved by one of the first Eggman's robots. The renegade decides to keep this information hidden and copies it onto his flash drive once Gerald's research had finished downloading.

E-Series Attack; Psi, Chi, Phi, Upsilon, and Tau

Zalvonia, Geltina Base underground section B-06, 3645/08/08, local time is 02:03.

Neoshadow was fighting his way to an elevator that would head up to the surface so that he could destroy the base's radar. So far he has not reached the elevator yet, but he knows that he has just tore through several R-robots on his way through the caves. Three rooms of some B-robots later, Neoshadow stood in front of the elevator that led to the surface, the only things in between him and the door being four robots that had different color schemes.

The robots activate and attack Neoshadow, who deflects their missiles effortlessly and punches one of them in the arm. The robot, a green-colored E-series robot that looked like Gamma, fires a point-blank laser shot at Neoshadow, but it has no effect. "Just what are you?! I am known as E-122 Psi." the green machine said to the Omnipotent Life Form.

"The name is Neoshadow the Hedgehog and you have failed to stop me." Neoshadow said to Psi, and fired a green Chaos Spear that rewrote Psi's AI. The other three robots, one of them a blue copy of Omega, another an orange copy, and the last a gold copy of Gamma, suddenly hit Neoshadow with several missiles, none of them even scratching him. Neoshadow zaps them with green Chaos Spears and the spears rewrite the AI of all three robots.

"Tau will not be pleased with our failure. E-119 Upsilon is fearful of what will happen." the gold copy of E-102 Gamma said.

The blue copy of E-123 replies, "To (bleep) with that. E-121 Chi feels like (bleep) right now."

"You robotards have baby squirrel swag problems. E-120 Phi is having elephant worries."

Neoshadow entered the elevator and headed up to the surface. When he exited, he was immediately attacked by a purple copy of Omega. Dodging furious attacks and ignoring the robot, Neoshadow manages to destroy all of the radar dishes within the base. When the base intercom reports that radar is down, immediately G.U.N. aircraft begin to arrive and bombard the base with AGMs. While this is going on, Neoshadow is able to prevent the purple robot from moving and hits it with a green Chaos Spear, rewriting its AI.

"This is some unpredictable outcome, for E-118 Tau to be defeated by G.U.N. forces. I have no idea what Upsilon, Psi, Chi, and Phi are doing right now." the purple copy of Omega said.

Looking at the machine one more time, Neoshadow heads off while a squad of soldiers recovered Tau. Meanwhile in the Northlands, Johnson and Andrew encountered an old hedgehog who went by the name Manic. Manic didn't attack either of them and he just followed them to where some of the South Island survivors were hiding. The exact specifics are unknown, but it is confirmed that Manic had to knock some sense into Lionel to make him see that Robotnik alone was responsible for the South Island Purge.

Elsewhere in the Northlands, specifically the Lexograd Exclusion Zone, Black Hope is looking for any clues as to what could possibly survive in this wasteland. When Lexograd was nuked, the Robotnik Empire wasted no time in setting up an exclusion zone that encompassed the city itself and the surrounding countryside and other environments. Today it still remains a toxic area unsuitable for any life forms not immune to nuclear radiation. The animal life had, for the most part, mutated because the radiation was so great that the animals could not simply die from being exposed to it.

E-series Storm: Sigma, Rho, Pi, Omicron, Xi, Nu, Mu, and Lambda

Space Colony ARK, 3645/08/13, 10:35 G.U.N. standard time, inside an overgrown lab.

The Original Shadow the Hedgehog was pursuing a large group of robots that had just stolen the other chaos emeralds from a shrine on North Island. Pursuit of the machines had taken Shadow back to where he was created: the Space Colony ARK. Everything had changed since the Eclipse Cannon was used to destroy the Black Comet. For instance, the entire colony was overgrown with vegetation that had thrived in the artificial atmosphere and it was populated with various creatures, research specimens that had evaded G.U.N. detection during the raid over 1650 years ago. Not only that, but the place was apparently falling into disrepair as some security doors no longer opened and some sectors had no gravity at all.

As he pursued the robots, Shadow Sr.'s memories of the ARK began to flow back into him. In was in this sector that used to be the main research laboratories that he was created by Gerald Robotnik as the Ultimate Life Form. Desecrating the ARK with its presence was a single robot, its general body shape not resembling Omega or Gamma. This machine had six arms that each had a single YNL-1624 machine gun hidden inside and sharp claws outside while its head had a rocket launcher and in the mouth where fangs and some sort of tongue should have been were rows of fangs, two of them longer and seemingly sharper than the other fangs. Then Shadow Sr. realized that these longer fangs were hollow when he got a closer look as he battled the machine. The legs didn't have any hidden weapons, but they had sharp claws. The Original Shadow managed to get lucky and hit the red spider-like robot with a Chaos Spear. The robot fell and ended up getting electrically shocked as it fell into a part of a reactor that powered the Space Colony.

"SYSTEM ERROR DETECTED IN E-115 OMICRON, ERROR CODE 4693845346-B. INITIATING COMPLETE SYSTEM REBOOT PROCEDURE."

Shadow Sr. left Omicron to pursue the other robots, these machines aside from two resembled dinosaurs. The largest one, based on the T-Rex, attacked with its huge teeth but Shadow Sr. avoids it and hits it from behind, knocking it out. The next machine, this one resembling a Triceratops, charged at Shadow but he dodges it and watches as it ends up shocking itself. The third and fourth robots, based on a pair of oni, tried to impale the Ultimate Life Form on their horns, but he avoids them and zaps the robots with Chaos Spears. The fifth robot finally decides to make a smart move and runs away, with Shadow Sr. in hot pursuit.

The robots left behind start to bicker with each other. The T-Rex machine said, "E-116 Rho feel liek dumb hedgehog scat now. Robotlik not be mappy." The Triceratops-like robot replies, "LETHAL ERROR DETECTED IN E-114 XI. INITIATING COMPLETE SYSTEM REBOOT PROCEDURE NOW." The first robot that resembled an oni said to its buddy, "This is some bull-(DING) for E-113 Nu and E-112 Mu to be defeated by some black hedgehog who is unable to even beat Sonic Jr." The second oni-like machine replies, "Your face is some bull-(DING) for I am E-113 Nu and you are E-112 Mu. However we are in agreement that this is some bull-(DING)!"

Three sectors later Shadow Sr. caught up with the robot from earlier, now flanked by two big ones that resembled Aletopeltas while the robot, an orange machine, resembled a Pterodactyl. They all attack Shadow Sr. in an effort to defeat him, but he dodges their attacks and zaps one of the Aletopelta-like bots. To his surprise the Chaos Spear simply bounces off of the robot's body. It retaliates with a sweep of its tail which hits the Ultimate Life Form and sends him flying into a wall. Getting back on his feet, Shadow Sr. zaps the robot again, this time on the head so that the projectile doesn't bounce off. The machine is angered and tries to impale Shadow with its tail, but it misses and ends up plunging the tail into a backup power generator. The resulting shock incapacitates the robot.

Focusing on the Pterodactyl- like machine, Shadow Sr. tries to attack it, but it simply flies out of range. Using a Chaos Spear, the Ultimate Life Form is able to zap the machine and knock it out. Now turning his attention to the last robot, Shadow knows that its body will simply shrug off Chaos Spears, so he punches it several times. Shrugging off the punches, the machine sends Shadow Sr. flying into another section of the ARK, this one having no gravity. While he adjusts to the weightlessness, the Aletopelta-like machine crashes in and manages to hit the Ultimate Life Form with another tail sweep, sending him into the main reactor that powered the Eclipse Cannon.

Suddenly the reactor turned itself off as an announcement rang throughout the ARK. "Attention, we are experiencing power failures in all sectors. As a precaution, all doors between sectors will be locked until power is restored." Thirteen seconds after the announcement is over, an energy spike is detected inside the central control room. The energy spike is a chaos control that is transporting someone related to the Original Shadow. When the Chaos Control is over, Neoshadow was inside the space colony. Noticing that the power is out, Neoshadow decides to just use the plasma cutters that he brought with him to break through the doors.

Neoshadow is finished cutting through the doors that lead to the main reactor when he hears the distinct hum of a chaos control attempt. When the Omnipotent Life Form breaks open the door, he notices a bright light, the Original Shadow, and a robot that resembled an Aletopelta. While Neoshadow rushed towards the machine, the light grew brighter until there was an intense flash of light. Shielding his eyes, Neoshadow can tell that someone has come to the ARK. As the intense light dies down, Neoshadow is able to identify who had come to the Space Colony to assist the Ultimate Life Form.

The figure that formed out of the bright light had the general shape of an anthropomorphic rabbit. Her skin was cream-colored and her outfit made her indistinguishable from Cream the Rabbit. Neoshadow however knew that it was not Cream who had been transported to the ARK. She slowly floated down to the Ultimate Life Form and carried him out of the reactor. Once she was out of the reactor she headed through the very doorways that Neoshadow had cut through.

With that aside, Neoshadow relentlessly attacked the dino-robot with various punches and kicks on different body parts. The attacks were very effective in on the head, in the gut, and on the tail contrasting to the rest of the machine's build. It tried to attack, but Neoshadow was too fast and zapped its head with a green Chaos Spear. It said to him, "You are very powerful, Neoshadow, for even I, E-119 Sigma, could not defeat you. Your friend, Shadow the Hedgehog Sr., was easy for me to thrash despite that he thrashed E-111 Lambda and E-117 Pi. If you ask, Pi has the shape of a Pterodactyl while Lambda is like me, only with more spikes on the tail."

E-119 Sigma started to cough and regurgitated the green Chaos Emerald. Neoshadow picked it up and left, with E-119 following him as he searched the other robots for chaos Emeralds. Xi had eaten the white Chaos Emerald like Sigma but regurgitated it when he awoke. The blue, purple, yellow, and cyan emeralds turned out to be in the possession of E-115 Omicron, who gave the emeralds to Neoshadow when the machine awoke.

Meanwhile at G.U.N. Headquarters. . .

G.U.N. Headquarters, Northlands, 3645/08/14, Weapons Development Lab 10:10 G.U.N. Standard Time.

All of the robots that had been captured during the successful attack on Geltina Base were now being scanned for any viruses that may have activated when their AI's were rewritten. To the relief of the G.U.N. soldiers, none of them had any malicious software inside of their data. The robots were then admitted into the organization after they passed an extremely difficult mission: searching the entire fortress for any R-robots that may have infiltrated the base and destroying them. As it turned out, about thirty robots had snuck into the base past  
G.U.N. defenses and were preparing to unleash a sabotage mission to make it easier for subsequent Robotnik forces to take the base. E-series robots Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, and Psi were able to prevent the R-robots from damaging important base equipment during the mission.

Meanwhile, in another room inside the fortress, the G.U.N. Commander was standing in front of a monitor that had several unfamiliar words on it and what appeared to be some sort of tracking system. The screen was displaying a map of the Space Colony ARK and a tracking signal was being received from there. The Commander then said to the nearest soldier, "This could be a glitch, soldier. Reboot the system and see what happens." The soldier heads off and reboots the system, but the tracking system signal was still being received from the ARK. Eventually realizing the situation at hand, the Commander issues an important command to all G.U.N. installations: Sonic the Hedgehog Jr. and Shadow the Hedgehog Jr. are to come to the G.U.N. Fortress immediately. Their friends are also welcomed to the base.

After that was done, the Commander then headed to another room where he received some news from the G.U.N. base where the female survivors of the South Island Purge were living. Apparently yesterday Chocolate the Rabbit disappeared around 11:05 G.U.N. standard time from the area she lived in. The news also said that there was no suspicious activity going on aside from Chaos-energy powered weapons testing, but that started about ten minutes later. After that was over, the Commander issued an order to the base: the survivors are to be transferred to the G.U.N. Fortress until further notice. When he was done issuing the order, he closed communications and went back to the command center where, for the most part, acted important by making phone calls and giving orders to subordinates.

Inside Yeng's office at the Chaotix Corporation Headquarters in Station Square, Yeng, an individual wearing a heavy black cloak that concealed his identity, was finalizing another buyout deal, this one being the buyout of Valve®. Before he signed the papers that closed the deal, Yeng called the President to receive his opinion on the deal. He approves of it, and the call is ended. After that was done, the papers were signed and yet another company was bought out by Chaotix Corporation. G.U.N. has been turning a blind eye to Yeng's business practices since their weaponry was now being supplied by the Chaotix Corporation.

Exclusion Zone Exploration

Lexograd Exclusion Zone, Northlands, 3645\08\15, 07:13 Local time.

Zolt the Bee was deployed into the Lexograd Exclusion Zone in order to investigate for any information that might help in stopping Robotnik once and for all. Cornelia was, for the time being, deployed to another area on Westside Island that Badniks were trying to reactivate. The Badniks were old robots from the time of Eggman I when he was known as Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Lucian Katubor a.k.a. the current Robotnik found out about the Badniks two years before the South Island Purge and decided to reactivate them. They proved so far to be reliable allies in the attempt to take over Westside Island, only being matched by the gun-toting gamblers of Casino Night Zone. Currently though, neither side has the upper hand nor are they on the defensive.

Zolt inspected his surroundings for any clues as to what could help him, but the war machines of the city were all inactive, and only a few computers were still functional. These computers were surprisingly able to survive the nuclear fallout and were being maintained by worker robots that simply ignored the Bee Soldier. Zolt used all of these computers and found almost nothing but robot blueprints on the first one, some important documents on the second, the third had Katubor's permanent record from high school, and the last computer had what Zolt was looking for: a personal journal that was maintained from after high school to before he went into hiding because of crimes against humanity. When he left the Exclusion Zone, he left for Westside Island and managed to catch up with Cornelia at the old refinery. As it turned out, the Badniks had already reactivated the facility and were polluting the water. The two then attacked and shut down the refinery once again, destroying the Badniks that had reactivated the place and several R-robots that came to assist them in repelling intruders.

Insurrection Reaches the Continent

G.U.N. Headquarters, Northlands, 13:13 local time.

Harmonius and Proton were deployed to the Northlands after they intercepted important intelligence regarding the Eastside Islanders that had joined the revolt. Flame Elephant and the rebels had now decided that G.U.N. must be eliminated in addition to the Eastside Island animals themselves. A squadron led by Flame Elephant went off to directly attack the G.U.N. Fortress in order to cripple their efforts to stop Robotnik and crush their morale. Harmonius and Proton had orders to intercept and neutralize the rebel forces so that G.U.N. is not caught in a multiple-front war with Robotnik.

The rebel squadron had attacked a transport convoy heading to the fortress, determined to cut off supply lines before destroying any relief forces that would arrive. Worse, civilians had been captured during the attack on the convoy, civilians that Harmonius identified as some of the South Island Survivors. Yet even though there was considerable distance between the rebels and Harmonius, the mosquito soldier pursued them all the way to Westopolis. Once there, Harmonius knew that the insurrectionists had taken over and were trying to execute the survivors on live television. Fortunately, they were not succeeding at the moment as their weapons kept malfunctioning and killing their own personnel while Harmonius and Proton fought their way to where the attempted executions were being televised. By the time that the rebels got their act together, it was already too late. Harmonius and Proton interrupted the execution, rescued most of the survivors, and with the exception of Flame Elephant, killed every insurrectionist. Flame Elephant had escaped once again, but he got away with Cosmos the Hedgehog as he burned through buildings to evade capture and possible destruction.

Heading to the G.U.N. fortress with the survivors wasn't very difficult since Harmonius and Proton went ahead of them and neutralized any obstacles such as groups of F-Robots and the occasional roadblock. Once there, the two Eastside Islanders agreed to register with the organization as a reward for helping them get the South Island Survivors here. The loyalist government on Eastside Island approved of this since they needed all the help they could get to stop the rebellion and G.U.N. was against Robotnik, who was financially aiding the rebels and arming them. With that out the way, Harmonius and Proton were ordered to remain at the G.U.N. fortress so that the insurrectionists thought twice before trying something like that again.

Meanwhile at Metropolis Zone on Westside Island, several Badniks were assembled for a rehearsal for an all-out attack on the Casino Night Zone, Emerald Hills Zone, and the Caves so that they could roboticize or exterminate all animal life on the island. Several R-Robots were also participating in the bimonthly attack drills today as the opponents. After the drills were over, the R-robots were trained to fight an all-out war with the inhabitants of the island. Little did they know that Zolt and his sister Princess Cornelia were spying on them and reported this to G.U.N. after the attack drills were completed. This would eventually lead to a large battle for dominion over Westside Island, which will be a part of the next story, Chaoxian Resolution.


End file.
